"
Religion that is pure is a hot thing; and il usually burns the
fingers of those that fight against it.
Ah, when God makes the bed, he must needs lie easy whom weakness
hath cast thereon: a blessed pillow hath. that man for his head,
though to all beholders it is hard as a stone. Psa. 41:1-3.
It is as ordinary as for the light to shine, for God to make back
and dismal dispensations usher in bright and pleasing.
Christian reader, let me beg of thee that thou wilt not be offended
either with God or men, if the cross is laid heavy upon thee. Not
with God, for he doeth nothing without a cause; nor with men, for
they are the hand of God: and will they, nill they, they are the
servants of God to thee for good. Psa. 17:14; Jer. 24:5. Take,
therefore, what comes from God by them thankfully. If the messenger
that brings it is glad that it is in his power to do thee hurt and
to afflict thee, if he skips for joy at thy calamity, be sorry for
him, pity him, and pray to thy Father for him: he is ignorant, and
understandeth not the judgment of thy God; yea, he showeth by this
his behavior, that though he as God's ordinance serveth thee by
afflicting thee, yet means he nothing less than to destroy thee: by
the which also he prognosticates before thee that he is working out
his own damnation by doing thee good.
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